Please, Call me Tom
Voldemort paced the study that he had taken for his own in Malfoy Manor. Something was bothering him, something was wrong. All of his plans had turned out the way he had wanted them to, other than the fact that the irritating boy who lived had managed to escape him once again. That was no big deal he would get him sooner or later. So why was he so worked up? What was wrong?
He had come out of the cauldron a grotesque, snake-like, creature. Bald, red eyes, slit nose. He had been so disappointed in his appearance and had not been able to even alter it with a glamour. But now a month later he was slowly changing. His skin wasn't as white and he had begun to grow just a small bit of hair. As the changes had begun to happen to him physically he had also begun to change in his mind.
He was consumed by confusion about his goals and why he had ever wanted those things to begin with. He felt as if there were so many holes in his memory and inside his soul. Feelings that felt rusty from lack of use had begun to surface. Feelings that didn't make sense. Like wanting to find Harry but not to hurt him, he wanted to protect him. He wanted to break into Azkaban but not to liberate his followers, he wanted to rescue his heart and soul. He needed answers. Something was very wrong.
He came to the conclusion that maybe if he reabsorbed one of his horcruxes it would help to fill in the holes he was feeling and help him set his mind straight. With his mind made up, he called Nagini to him. His trusted familiar. The closest thing that was carrying a piece of his soul. The very large snake appeared in the room and slithered up to her Master. Voldemort placed his hand on her head to pet her lovingly.
I am sorry my pet but what I am about to do will hurt you a bit. I must take the piece of myself that you protect back into myself.
Voldemort continued to pet the large snake who had been by his side for so many years.
Of course my Master. Whatever you need, Nagini can take it.
The Dark Lord called one of his most loyal followers to the room. He was going to need help, he would not be able to draw the runes on himself so he would need someone whom he trusted to keep everything that happened in the room to himself. Ten minutes later there was a rap at the door.
"Enter," Voldemort called. In strode Severus Snape, the youngest and brightest Potion Master in the known Wizarding World. He knelt to the ground with his head bowed.
"My Lord, how can I be of service?" Severus asked sincerely.
"I am in need of someone who I can trust implicitly. The next few things to happen in this room will only be known by you and I. If it gets out, I will know who betrayed me and you will lose your life. Do you understand?" Voldemort asked.
"Yes, Master. I understand, I will not betray your trust," Severus stated with his head still bowed. He didn't know what was happening but whatever it was he would be sure that he didn't reveal anything that happened in this room to Dumbledore. Being a spy for both sides was a very scary edge to balance on.
"Good. Come here Severus," Voldemort called. He turned the open book on the desk to face Severus. "I need you to follow these instructions exactly. It is extremely important that you do not mess this up. I drew the runic circle on the floor while I waited for you and I have warded the room for privacy and silence. Can you do this?"
"Yes, My Lord, I can do this. Are you ready for me to start now?" Severus asked the Dark Lord. Voldemort nodded and sat down on the chair. He handed Severus an athame and a ritual bowl. Severus slashed across the Dark Lord's palm and let it fill up the bowl. No more words were spoken as Severus followed the diagram in the book and placed the runes very carefully on his lord. Severus was not a stupid man. He knew that Voldemort was recalling a piece of his soul from a Horcrux.
Thirty, long, careful minutes later Severus was finally finished. Voldemort moved into the runic circle that he had made before, and Nagini followed him into the circle and curled up waiting for it to begin. Severus stepped forward with the book in hand and held it out for Voldemort to read the ritual words.
~~
I call to the pure Wixen Fire
Through vortex flow the heavenly mire
Cleanse brackish karma of debris
From Dark to Light, sweep history.
A Wixen split in body and soul
What was asunder, must be remade whole.
Let this body and spirit reunite,
So the remade soul can heal this blight
~~
When Voldemort finished speaking the words he waited for two heartbeats before Nagini began to hiss and writhe in pain. Then a black mist rose from the snake's body and hurled into the Dark Lord. Voldemort hissed and doubled over in pain for five long minutes before he finally stood tall and blinked a few times before stepping out of the circle. He was quiet as he moved to his chair and sat down.
"My Lord? How do you feel?" Severus asked cautiously. Voldemort looked up at Severus as if he had forgotten he was there and blinked a few times before answering.
"I feel quite a bit more sane. A lot less torture happy and a bit more clear-headed. I believe that I need to retrieve my remaining horcruxes and make myself as whole as I can without the piece that Harry already banished. I need you to retrieve the Horcrux that I hid away in the Come and Go room at Hogwarts. I will tell you how to retrieve it and where to find it," Voldemort explained to a very surprised potion master. Severus bowed and listened as his Lord explained what he needed from him.
Severus Snape left Malfoy Manor very confused and feeling very hopeful for a reason that he just couldn't put his finger on. He was going to help his Lord fix his soul and hope that it made every bit of difference for the man and his goals.
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Harry Potter was laying on his crappy bed in his room staring at the dark ceiling in confusion. It had been a week since he had been used in the ritual to bring back Voldemort in the cemetery. It had started out very slowly in a way that Harry barely noticed. The first time he realized that something was wrong was when his fat lump of a cousin demanded that he go into a store and steal alcohol for him. Harry had refused telling Dudley that he could 'fuck right off'.
Except nothing had come out of his mouth. No matter how many times he tried to say no his mouth did not respond to what he was trying to make it say. What happened, to Harry's horror, was that he said.
"What kind of alcohol do you want me to steal?" Harry was horrified. Why did he say that? That had not been what he wanted to say at all.
"I don't care what bloody brand you get, just get me some vodka," Dudley had replied smugly and his friends cheered him on. Harry, once again, tried to tell Dudley to 'fuck off and do it himself', but nothing came out of his mouth. Instead, he just nodded his head and walked right on into the store and no matter how much Harry tried to stop himself he had absolutely no control over his own body. He stole the alcohol and handed it to Dudley. Then Dudley and his friends had a great time taking turns hitting Harry for the fun of it before they headed off to a party.
Harry had been shocked. Surely, he was losing his mind. He had gone crazy. His body and mind had split and he was officially bonkers. Cedric's death and Voldemort's return had made his mind truly fracture. It continued that way for the entire month. Harry continued to be a prisoner in his own mind. His relatives used him as a slave and a punching bag, and no matter how many times he tried to refuse or talk back he couldn't. His body responded in a way that was unnatural to Harry and the words that came out of his mind were not his.
So Harry took the time while his body was moving on autopilot to really think about things and look inside himself. He explored his mindscape. It was very odd and there was a malevolent presence in his mind that attempted to attack him every time that he caught sight of it. So Harry tried to think back over a book he had come across when he was doing all of his reading to research for the tournament. It had been about mindscapes and something called occlumency. It was a way to protect your mind from outside forces.
There had been a passage in it about building walls to protect one's self from invasion. So that is what Harry did. He built a mindscape that suited him and he started with a wall. He had spent the better part of a week building a wall brick-by-brick carefully and meticulously making sure that it was solid and secure. Next, he built a heavy solid door with many many locks that took different keys and codes to open. Once he was finished with that he stepped outside of his wall and began to dig. By the time the week was up, he had dug out a large mote all the way around his wall and filled it with water and every kind of vicious water animal that he could imagine. He envisioned a draw bridge that rose up and covered his heavy door as another layer of protection.
Once he was finished with that he stepped into the area he had secured for himself and it was barren and smokey just waiting for him to mold it to what he wanted. Instead of doing anything extravagant for the time being he covered the area in the thickest, softest, grass he had ever touched and then imagined one very large tree that was full of green leaves and cast a large shadow over the area. Harry looked outward to see what was happening with his body and then retreated to his mindscape and lay down for a nap. He had truly exhausted himself mentally with all of the meticulous work he had done in his own mind.
Every day he still tried to take back control of his body but he was never able to even make himself hesitate or twitch when he was given instructions. Soon, a month had passed since school had let out and surprisingly the Headmaster came to visit. Harry was currently sitting in the living room with his aunt, uncle, and Dumbledore. He was shocked at the things that he was hearing. He just couldn't believe the things they were talking about right in front of him as if he wasn't there.
"You are continuing to properly abuse the boy? He is behaving the way that he is supposed to be?" Albus asked his relatives.
"Of course, we are. He is doing all of the cooking, cleaning, gardening, and all of the housework. He is barely given food and is kept locked in his room. He is properly beaten by all of us and is still reacting exactly the way that he should be," Petunia answered. Albus nodded eagerly.
"Good, good and he hasn't shown any signs of breaking free of his compulsions and you are still secretly feeding him the potions correct?" Albus asked again.
"Yes, the freak is still behaving the way he has since you first placed the compulsions on him two years ago. Now do you have our money?" Vernon demanded. Albus chuckled and handed over an envelope that looked very thick then he sat back with a smug smile.
"Perfect. I was a little concerned after the graveyard ritual that things may have changed. I watched the memory of it while he was sleeping in the infirmary afterward. Something happened that I did not expect, and that is why I came now instead of waiting until the boy got back to school to renew his compulsions. Harry panicked. He finally understood what was going on. Dumbledore had been controlling everything about him for years. Somehow, after the graveyard he had gained back control of at least his mind. He would not allow Dumbledore to take that from him.
So when Dumbledore instructed Harry to come and stand in front of him and look him in the eyes Harry retreated behind his brick wall and into the stone cabin that he had built in his mindscape. He closed and shuttered all of the windows and hid away in a corner of the room to make sure that he was not found by Dumbledore in his mind. He could hear the voice in his mind and covered his ears.
Harry didn't know how much time had passed when he finally pulled his hands from his ears and listened carefully. When he heard nothing but quiet he slipped out of his cabin and waited for a bit to listen again. When he still heard nothing he ventured out of his secure area so that he could once again pay attention to what was happening outside of his mind. As the weeks continued to pass him by things remained exactly the same outside of his mind. Inside, however, the malevolent presence that had been somewhat stalking him had gotten a little more aggressive. Harry had become quite talented at world-building in his mind. There was no place that was barren and smokey anymore. There were forests and lakes and all manner of vicious beasts to help him stay safe from the being that was stalking him in his mind.
His birthday came and went as if it was no different from every other day of the year. He didn't even receive any letters or gifts from his friends, Sirius, or Remus. Harry just accepted it as another thing that Dumbledore was denying him. A week before school started he was sent off to The Burrow. He was happy to be away from the Dursleys and back with people who were supposed to love him.
"Hey mate, It's good to see you. I thought you were going to come earlier this summer like you usually do. Something came up at the ministry and Dad thought it would be best if you waited a little bit longer before you came," Ron told him excitedly as he clapped him on the shoulder. Well, it seemed like at least Ron was normal. In fact, all of the Weasleys seemed normal. Except, Ginny, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley seemed to be watching him a little harder than the rest.
He was most upset about Ginny. He had told Ginny two years ago when she had first confessed that she liked him that he was gay. It had seemed like she respected that but now Harry wasn't so sure. She was touching him whenever she could. Mrs. Weasley and Hermione made sure to always put her next to him at the dinner table or when they were all relaxing in the living room. Then she escalated it one day when she pulled Harry around a corner and kissed him. The part that upset Harry the most was that his body responded eagerly while he was screaming in his mind for her to stop that he didn't want it.
"Ginny, what are you doing?" Hermione hissed when she came around the corner. Ginny jumped away from Harry and looked irritated.
"What? I wasn't doing anything wrong. I don't know why we have to hide anyway. It isn't like he is going to tell anyone or go against it. He would openly date me and no one would question it." Ginny pouted and actually stomped her foot and crossed her arms. Harry rolled his eyes and was thankful for the interruption.
"Except, Ginny, your brothers and all of his dormmates know that he publicly turned you down and admitted to only being interested in men. He is openly gay Ginny. You will screw everything up that Dumbledore is planning if you are caught. You will make people start becoming even more suspicious than they already are. Dumbledore has a plan to make his interest in you believable so that you can marry him before the actual war starts. Just be patient and Harry will be yours." Hermione told the redhead as if she had already explained this very thing to her many times before.
"Now let's go and get some tea. Molly has already put Harry's potion in his tea," Hermione ended and then looped her arm with Harry's and led him into the kitchen where Molly was waiting with the tea service.
"This one here is Harry's," Mrs. Weasley pointed out and Hermione picked up the cup and handed it to Harry. "Make sure you drink it up, Harry."
So from what Harry could tell, only the three females were in on Dumbledore's manipulations. Ron was truly his friend and so were the twins. That was at least something.
Before he knew it they were on the train heading back to Hogwarts for their sixth year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dumbledore was sitting in his office behind his desk. He was very happy with how things were going. All of his plans were falling into place nicely. Voldemort was back, Harry was well in hand and under control, the papers were dragging his name through the mud, and Delores Umbridge was going to be working in the school and tormenting the students, it would keep the students morale down and depressed. It was going to be a great year. He was ready to start planting the visions in the boy's mind about the prophecy so that he would tell his friends about it. He also had it all lined up for Sirius to be dead before Harry went home for the summer.
He had kept an extra close eye on Harry during the summer because he had noticed that during the ritual the piece of Voldemort's soul that had been inside Harry since he was fifteen months old had been pulled from the boy and joined back with Voldemort. He didn't know what that would mean for Harry or Voldemort but he had been keeping an eye out for any abnormal behavior. So far everything was just as he expected it to be.
Severus, his trusted spy, was not reporting anything that would make him worry. According to the Potion Master, Voldemort was just as unhinged and curse-happy as he had been before his 'death' all those years ago. He was still just as fixated on Harry as before. That was good. That was just how he needed it to be. He was very proud of how well his plans were going. He was very confident that nothing would stop him now.
He had told the Weasley chit that she was going to get to marry Potter and conceive an heir so that she could gain the entire Potter and Black fortune when they orchestrated Harry's death. However, that was not the plan at all. James and Lily Potter were not actually dead. The entire night that everyone remembers of their death was all a lie. After faking their deaths James and Lily had disappeared into the muggle world with their true daughter. They had taken on a muggle name and were instructed to wait until such a time that Voldemort was defeated and then they would rejoin the wizarding world and take their places as his most favored 'Light' family. He just had to get Sirius to make Hermione his heir instead of Harry so that when the boy followed him in death, the Black fortune would still be under his control.
The boy would be back under his watchful eye in the next few hours and everything was just perfect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Voldemort was finally ready. It had taken him another month to retrieve everything and get it all together but he had retrieved all of his missing soul pieces and had recalled Severus to Malfoy Manor. They were once again in the study and the runic circle was already drawn on the floor.
He hadn't planned on putting the rest of his soul together after the first time. However, it had taken a week for things to start coming back to him. The soul piece had mended completely with the piece he was already holding and once it had healed he had started to remember things. Things about himself and his family. The faces were blurred so he didn't know who they were but he knew that they were alive and that he needed to get to them.
Dumbledore had been messing with his mind. There were holes. He remembered his original agenda. The reason he had originally decided to run for Minister of Magic. He had wanted to create a safer world for all wixen, not just the purebloods. He had wanted to eradicate all of the unjust creature laws. He had wanted a complete separation of wixen and muggles. Above everything else he had gathered a group of people who had been working on a way to give squibs magic. He truly believed that the potential for them to regain their magic was there, they just needed to find a way to pull it out.
Voldemort truly believed that all Muggle-born wixen were actually the descendants of squib lines that had been abandoned in the Muggle world. If they could fix the squibs or at least find places for them in the magical world, Voldemort truly believed that there would be no more Wixen born to 'Muggle' parents.
But somewhere along the way he had been manipulated so badly that his entire agenda had been changed. He went from an intelligently driven man out to truly better the world for all Wixen to a raving lunatic hell-bent on war and chaos. It just didn't make sense. Thus, the reason why he had decided to take back all of the pieces of his torn soul.
"Are you ready, My Lord?" Severus asked. Voldemort nodded and sat back in his chair so that Severus could once again meticulously draw the runes on his upper body in his blood. He was hoping that he got his full memories back and that he could start doing something about getting rid of Dumbledore.
Finally, Severus was finished and Voldemort stood and placed each item in the runic circle. A cup, a diadem, a locket, and a ring are all evenly spaced out around Voldemort who stands in the middle. Severus once again held the book out for Voldemort to read the incantation and watched in morbid curiosity as black smoke billowed out of the four items and converged on the waiting Dark Lord. Voldemort doubled over in pain for a lot longer than last time and when he finally stood again he was very unsteady on his feet. He barely made it two steps out of the circle before he collapsed.
Severus quickly caught the Dark lord and laid him gently on the ground. He would wait in the room with him until he woke again. Severus waited a few hours before he realized that the man could be out for quite some time. He levitated him to a chaise in the room and made him comfortable before calling a house elf and making an excuse about Death Eater business and that he and the Dark Lord would be taking all meals in the room until informed otherwise. And so Severus settled in to wait. School didn't start back for a week and a half so he was free to watch over the unconscious man.
Four days passed and Severus watched the amazing transformation that took place. The deathly white color of his skin became a healthy moon-kissed pale. His dark brown hair grew out to almost his shoulders in healthy thick waves. His nose went from a snake slit to a normal healthy nose. All in all, he looked for all intents and purposes like a handsome, healthy, middle-aged man. Severus was in awe.
Finally, at the end of the fourth day, The Dark Lord stirred. Severus was standing and ready in a moment to attend to his Lord's needs. Voldemort blinked his eyes open and took a deep breath. He sat up and looked over to his most trusted alley.
"How long was I out for?" He asked the cautious man. Severus knelt and bowed his head.
"You were out for four days, My Lord," Severus answered.
"Did you stay and look over me for all that time, Severus?"
"Yes, My Lord. I made excuses with the others in the manor that you and I were working on important plans and that you were not to be disturbed for any reason. Your secret is still safe, My Lord," Severus informed the smiling man. Voldemort grinned wider and stood up. He conjured a mirror and looked himself over. He was quite happy with the changes this was what he had looked like before his soul had been split so many times. He was still missing a piece but that could not be helped he would just have to learn to live with that missing piece.
"Severus, my old friend, I have remembered a great many things while I slept and my soul mended. I can tell that there are still holes and spells that are working to keep me from knowing everything, but I know enough to know that I will be making a trip to Gringotts. The Goblins will be able to set me completely to rights and then we will be planning a prison break," Voldemort explained while he continued to stare at himself in the mirror.
"Of course, My Lord. All you have to do is tell me what you require of me and I will do it," Severus replied. This was a man that he could follow. He had been sick of Dumbledore's manipulations and plans for many many years. Something about the old man had always unsettled him. But he had never cut ties with him because his other option was an insane power-hungry Dark Lord. Now though, the man was very different. He was sane and thinking clearly. Severus would abandon Dumbledore and truly be Voldemort's man from this day forward.
"First things first, Severus. Do not refer to me as My Lord or Lord Voldemort. That was a name chosen for me by that manipulative old headmaster. I am actually very proud of my heritage and my name," Voldemort said with smile finally turning to look at the still kneeling man. He walked over and pulled Severus to his feet.
"What would you like me to call you then?" Severus asked tentatively. The handsome man smiled showing perfect white teeth flashing just a bit of fang.
"Please, Call me Tom."